The cleaning process of a large number of garments, bed clothing and linen in general can be circumscribed to the steps of washing, drying and ironing.
It is well known that after the drying and washing steps clothes have faulty or irregular creases commonly denoted as “wrinkles”, therefore said clothes must be ironed to smoothen or flatten said wrinkles. It is not enough to use a perfectly cleaned garment, but having all the lines erased by wrinkles. While molecules are hot fibers are stretched by the iron's weight and keep their new shape when cooled. Some materials like cotton, require the addition of water to loosen intermolecular links. Many modern materials are advertised as requiring little ironing or none.
It is well known that water and heat are the most commonly used for removing wrinkles from textile clothes, because when water contacts fibers it expands or stretches them, thus wrinkles are smoothed, while heat sets said smoothening such that wrinkles are removed. Within this context, steam (water and heat) is most commonly used for removing wrinkles from textile clothes.
For many years conventional dryers use steam for drying, and, in some instances, for removing wrinkles from textile clothes, however, this is a very costly technology.
There are known tricks for removing wrinkles from clothes, such as using steam produced in the bathroom shower, in this case, garments are previously humidified with a clean cloth and hanged away from the shower to advantageously use the steam. While this trick is useful, wrinkles don't disappear at all, besides it results in an important waste of water.
Another trick is to use a hair dryer, wherein again a wet cloth is used and then the hair dryer is passed over the wrinkles, while the garment is stretched and thus removes said wrinkles.
Also, some people use a hair straightener, and similarly the wrinkled area is humidified and then the hair straightener is passed over the wrinkles with care so as to not deteriorate the garment.
For the removal of wrinkles from garments, there are softeners sprays in the market, which help fabrics to adopt its natural shape and therefore smoothen wrinkles. There are liquid softeners as well, which are used right after washing and just before drying clothes.
Finally, there is the use of a clothes dryer, in this case, garments are humidified with a wet cloth and then placed inside the dryer for a period of time, then said hot garment is removed and hanged in order to remove the wrinkles.
As can be seen from the foregoing, those tricks for removing wrinkles from garments and linen in general can be acceptable, but not effective at all, being just a temporary solution to get rid of wrinkles.
Nowadays, many models and trademarks of automatic clothes dryers exist in the state of the art, which include the unwrinkle processes, such as is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,207,683, which refers to an improvement on conventional clothes dryers including a spray nozzle, a control valve, and a water line coupled to a water source. The touch-up spray is used for removal of wrinkles from clothing and fabrics and permanent press clothing in particular without removing a garment's factory set creases. The apparatus may also include a water heating unit for spraying water of a selected temperature or steam. The apparatus may further be provided with a liquid additive dispenser for dispensing static electricity removal agents and clothes softening fluids.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,325,330 discloses an apparatus and method for eliminating wrinkles in clothes in a washing or drying machine using steam to eliminate wrinkles in clothes, in a state in which the clothes are worn by a user or stored, as well as in a state in which washing of the clothes has ended. The method includes determining whether or not a wrinkle-eliminating procedure is selected; supplying hot air to the clothes to eliminate dust from the clothes when it is determined that the wrinkle-eliminating procedure is selected, and supplying steam to the clothes, from which the dust was eliminated, to remove the wrinkles from the clothes.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,104,191, describes a laundry dryer including a rotatable drum, an air delivery system selectively operable to provide air into the drum at a first flow rate and a second flow rate that is less than the first flow rate, and a moisture delivery system operable to provide moisture (e.g., water mist or steam) into the drum while air is being provided at the lower second flow rate, and during drum rotation, to thus enhance dispersion of moisture into the fabrics of the load. The air delivery system can include a reversible blower that provides air at the first flow rate when operated in a first direction and provides air at the second flow rate when operated in an opposite second direction. The drum can be a reversibly rotatable drum that is rotatable in a first and an opposite second direction, and the dryer can include a drive motor that both rotates the drum and operates the blower. The moisture delivery system can include a nozzle to provide moisture directly into the drum.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,187,387 refers to a dryer and a method of controlling a cleaning operation thereof that are capable of supplying moisture into a drying chamber of the dryer to wet contaminants in the drying chamber and blowing air to the wet clothes to remove the contaminants in contact with the means to eliminate contaminants. The method includes supplying moisture into a drying chamber to wet contaminants in the drying chamber and removing the contaminants wetted by the moisture.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,272,090 describes a method for operating a washing machine, in which wrinkles are removed from laundry using steam. The method includes supplying steam of a high temperature to a drum containing laundry, and supplying air to the drum. The method facilitates the refreshing of the clothes, thus allowing a user to wear the clothes just after the refreshing of the clothes.
U.S. Patent Application Serial No. US2010/0050464 A1 relates to a clothes dryer comprising a drying drum with an airflow inlet and a motor for rotating the drum. A blower rotated by a fan motor flows air into, through, and out the drum. A refresh or touch-up de-wrinkle course is selected via a signal input on a control panel. Steam is supplied to the drum by a steam generating device, and heated air from a heater is supplied via the inlet. A controller operates the steam device and the heater, in response to the procedure that has been selected, to supply to the drum a plurality of steam pulses of at least one first predetermined time and a heated air pulse after each steam pulse. Heated air pulses between steam pulses are intermediate pulses of at least one second predetermined time to reduce condensation in the dryer and the final pulse of heated air is of a duration to dry clothes.
On the other hand, U.S. Patent Application Serial No. US2011/0107617 A1 discloses a control method for drying clothes that sprays an appropriate amount of water based on the amount of clothes and dries the clothes at a fiber rearrangement temperature to remove wrinkles from the clothes. Standard regain of clothing is confirmed, the mist is sprayed such that an equivalent amount of mist can regain approximately twice the clothes, and the clothes are dried at the fiber rearrangement temperature, whereby wrinkles are removed from the clothes.
International Patent Application No. PCT/KR2010/002379 (international Publication No. WO 2010/120146) relates to an operating method for a clothes dryer, which has a rotatable drum mounted inside a main body, a heater for heating the air flowing into the drum; and a scent supplying module for spraying scent into the drum, comprising: a drying step of drying clothes by supplying hot air heated by the heater; a pre-treating step of tumbling the drum while supplying hot air; and a scent treating step of spraying scent onto the clothes which has passed through the pre-treating step. Since the scent is sprayed on after the pre-treating step, the scent can be effectively deposited on the clothes.
According to the above, it can be seen from the documents found in the state of the art that there is a great deal of machines and methods for the removal of wrinkles from textile clothes, where all of them use steam to that end, thus making this process highly expensive as a steam generating unit must be included in dryers and, on the other hand not being effective enough to remove wrinkles.
In view of the above, an intelligent electronic system for removing wrinkles on textile clothes was developed, as well as a method to carry out said wrinkle removal, wherein both are applicable to any automatic dryer machine for home use.